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Cycle 1

The SOFIA Cycle 1 Call for Proposals is now closed.

Download the SOFIA Cycle 1 Call for Proposals

SOFIA Observer's Handbook for Cycle 1 Current Version: 1.2.4 -- Updated: 2012 Jan. 17.

Cycle 1 Schedule

Reserved Observations Catalogs (ROCs)

Summary tables containing the Reserved Observations for each instrument are included as appendices in the Call for Proposals.

Completed Observations Tables

Duplications of existing observations, obtained during Early Science, need to be justified explicitly. The tables below list the observations obtained with FORCAST.

FORCAST Short Science/GTO Observations

FORCAST Basic Science Observations

GREAT Basic Science Observations

As the analysis of the GREAT Basic Science data are still under way, the exact exposure times achieved for each target are not currently known to high accuracy. The times reported in the GREAT Basic Science Observations table are the flight-leg durations, which include set-up times and observing inefficiencies.

Instruments

For Cycle 1, four instruments will be available: FLITECAM, FORCAST, GREAT and HIPO, as well as the HIPO/FLITECAM combination. The instrument capabilities available for Cycle 1 observations are described in the Observers Handbook. Further details are available on the instrument pages.

SOFIA Workshop Presentations

Presentations made at the SOFIA Workshop held at NASA Ames on November 7-8, 2011 are available here.

Proposal Tools, Tutorials, and other Documents

SOFIA Proposal Tool (SPT)

All proposals are to be prepared using the SOFIA Proposal Tool (SPT), which is based on the Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT) used for Hubble Space Telescope proposals. The proposal ingest will become operational along with the final Call for Proposals release on December 12, 2011.

Download SPT (Note: ignore the username/password boxes at the top of the page.)

SOFIA Instrument Time Estimator (SITE)

The exposure times for FORCAST imaging observations can be estimated with the on-line calculator, SITE. An on-line calculator for estimating the exposure time for FLITECAM spectroscopic observations is available here. Information describing how to estimate the exposure times for FORCAST grism mode observations can be found in the most recent version of the Observer's Handbook.

The exposure time for GREAT observations should be calculated using the on-line tool at the DSI website. The calculations are based on the GREAT tutorial, which contains the method used for the estimation of exposure time.

In order to calculate exposure times for observations using GREAT, it is necessary to know the atmospheric transmission as a function of wavelength. This may be done using the on-line tool ATRAN.

Target Visibility Tool

The target visibility for SOFIA can be determined using the on-line Target Visibility Tool. Instructions on using the tool are available by clicking the "Help" or "?" icon on the top left of the applet. The Call for Proposals will contain details such as the permissible target elevations and flight times.

SOFIA Overview paper

"Status of the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)" (Gehrz et al. 2011).

Cycle 1 FAQ

Contact the SOFIA help-desk

Page Last Updated: February 2, 2012